EU Commissioner joins Intel online safety training in Brussels

Today, Neelie Kroes the Commissioner responsible for Europe’s Digital Agenda joined one of our training sessions on online safety at a secondary school in Brussels. Intel and McAfee have a well-established volunteer training programme under which our employees provide in-school trainings for pupils aged 14-16 to educate them about online safety and cybersecurity. Commissioner Kroes’ participation today was the highlight of the series of such training sessions we have given at this school, which we kicked off during Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2013.

She sat with the pupils at their desks, participated actively in the training and discussed topics such as cybersecurity, online privacy, cyber criminality and cyber bullying with them. The pupils themselves were also keen to ask her questions about these issues. Last but not least, the Commissioner invited them to put all their ideas on paper about what the role of the EU should be on these topics, and personally hand it to her at the European Commission headquarters.

“Children today are active on the Internet from a young age. Therefore, it is important that we make them aware and teach them how to deal with potential risks online. Making the Internet a better and safer place for young people requires cooperation between schools, parents, governments and the business world. I am therefore grateful to Intel for this voluntary initiative,” said the Commissioner.

Many thanks to the school, the Koninklijk Atheneum Koekelberg, for hosting the trainings, which we’ll do more of in the future.